Perfection

I have a world view that I find consistently contradicts the approach of the common man to understanding his surroundings. As an analyst, my mind works constantly to find reason and basis for differences in opinion among people. This morning I was especially moved to share my idea of the concept of perfection.

The Western world shares a very distinct idea of perfection. It revolves around the idea that everything is in pristine condition and in perfect order. Think about it for a minute. What comes to mind when you imagine perfection? Paint a picture in your mind briefly. Is there any chaos there? Is there destruction? Probably not. Are there any evils? Is anything distasteful? I doubt it. The modern Western idea of perfection strips away everything bad and leaves only what is good.

In mathematics and the sciences, it is widely accepted that a perfect state is one of equilibrium where all sides balance out. In simple algebraic models, this can be written with x's and y's. You solved these equations in high school trying to find what x and y were to find what numbers they represented - essentially restoring balance to an equation. In more advanced theory, equilibrium is a state of chaos. This is visually represented by a snow field, like the one you see when you turn on the television to a channel with no reception or signal. The natural state of information flowing into your television is a field of black and white dots moving seemingly at random. This is equilibrium. This is chaos. In a way, this is perfection. It is unmoved natural order, less man's action.

Man, among other species that inhabit this planet, has the unique ability to change his situation. Other animals exist in a perfectly harmonious state of life with the planet, playing a key role in their own ecosystems and, in turn, with nature. They live and die due to nature's will. By and large, they have little ability to change their environment or alter their role in the circle of life. Man, on the other hand, does have this ability. In our current civilization, technology allows us to build huge structures which have the potential to alter wind flows and change the course of rivers. We can create chemical reactions and have harnessed the ability to control (for the most part) fire - no other species on this planet has this skill. We have increasingly altered the constitution of the environment in areas of the planet, our cities, to the extent that the air's carbon dioxide content has increased while the percentage of oxygen in the air decreases. Whether or not this has a global effect and creates the "greenhouse" effect is still hotly contested by the Earth's population. What is true is that our current civilization, especially the one that dominates humanity's agenda on a global scale - Western-Christian-Capitalistic civilization, has a tendency to upset the natural order of the planet in exchange for pursuing a very materialistic, selfish and greedy path.

Perfection, in this civilization, completely ignores the concepts of evil and wrongdoing, yet, these are integral parts of humanity. They exist in the spectrum of morality and ethics. People do evil. People do bad. They may not fully understand the implications of their actions when they occur. Nevertheless, it happens. All things bad and evil must be considered to be included into a perfect state of order.

However the essential nature of perfection posits that all aspects of humanity are noted for. Perfection is perfect equilibrium, including all that is bad with all that is good. My idea of perfection is a newborn baby, with a mind that is easily imprinted upon and influenced. A newborn baby's idea of life is perfect in the sense that it is completely unimpacted by the effects of the society and culture it is born into. A baby can be influenced to be a devil or to be an angel. His mind is perfectly uneffected by society's torrents of knowledge, habit and character.

From this concept of perfection, one must be careful when identifying something as good or bad. Good and bad are moral and ethical concepts. In many cases, they are misapplied to today's world. What sparked this entire thought was an assessment of the American economy's current conditions and the tendency to label a bear market as bad times. Sure, they are difficult for corporations, who must contract their operations, in many cases firing people. Sure, they are difficult for investors who hold long positions, because their assets are decreasing. These immediate implications, however, are merely market changes. Economic theory states that business cycles are natural aspects of a perfect market. Steady growth may occur but what goes up must always come down. There is no good and bad in a free market economic situation. There is merely up and down.

This leads into an entirely new discussion on Western value and how it is refelcted in rising debt levels, along with these implications for the economy. I will not delve into this now, but it will probably be covered on this blog at some point in the future.

Cheers.